Getting Started

Very few people go through life knowing exactly what they want to do. Melissa shares with us how she came to the decision that a life in education was the right route for her.

Hi everyone! I hope everyone's having a wonderful week so far!

Now, to get things going, I'm going to give a bit of background information as to why and how I got into working through Protocol Education. I'm a newbie when it comes to working in an educational setting, and I wanted to start at the beginning for this post so you guys will be able to come along with me for my experiences in future posts. So without further ado, let's get started!

Since I graduated University in 2011, I knew that I wanted to get into Teaching and work with children. I just love being around them, mostly because I'm just a big kid myself! One of my jobs before working through Protocol was as a Playworker in an After School programme at a local Community Centre, which I worked at for around 4 years. I was also working in an office for an NHS Out of Hours Service at the time as well, which was my main source of income, but I considered my work with the children the most rewarding, and I knew that if there was any career path I would want to go down, it would definitely involve working with kids.

I will admit that when I graduated, I just ended up falling into the rut of working simply for the sake of working and earning money. My job with the NHS was decent work, but I didn't feel anywhere near as passionate about it as I did with my job at the Community Centre. I just ended up plodding along for a few years, still living at home with my family and not really feeling as though I could branch out on my own yet.

Then randomly, just before the New Year, I got to thinking to myself about where I was in my life. Not that I'm extremely old or anything, I'm only 27! ... but I guess it all just hit me. I thought about how much more rewarding and satisfying it would be to work with children and how much happier I'd be in my personal life if I were to come home from a job I actually liked doing!

And that was it! As lame as it sounds, I got into the whole 'New Year, New Me' way of thinking ... I knew that, despite it being so sudden, if I didn't got for it then, I never would. So I literally picked up my phone and emailed my resignation to my boss there and then. And do you know what? ... it was the happiest I'd been in months!!!

Once the New Year had settled down a bit, I'd contacted Protocol Education to see if they could help me get the job I wanted. I met up with some of the most helpful people I've ever come across and I couldn't have asked for a better starting point. Everyone I spoke to was really helpful and always made me feel as though I could contact them at any time with any questions I had. Then literally, within about 2 weeks of me signing up with the agency, my DBS had cleared and I had already been put forward for an interview!!

And now, fast forward 3 months, I'm working in the very school that very same interview had been for, as a 1:1 with a wonderful boy in Yr 4. The Teachers, other TA's and all the other members of staff have been nothing but amazing and the children have been wonderful! It was a very hectic first few weeks, but it was definitely a great starting point.

On the whole, it's been such a wonderful experience and my sudden decision has definitely paid off. I still get pretty nervous when I think of how far I've come in such a short amount of time, but I honestly don't think I would have had such a seamless integration had it not been for the brilliant people at Protocol.